Thanks for a very interesting review I like the fact that you always give an honest opinion and don't necessarily pick most peoples favourite keap them coming
It’s unfortunate that initial bad reviews probably killed the Sennheiser 8XX. I purchased mine at Christmas time when drop was selling them for about $950 and at first I wasn’t quite sure especially after reading the bad reviews if I was going to keep them or not. However I discovered that when I used a tube amplifier The 8XX suddenly came alive and became much more engaging. As a matter of fact over the course of a couple of months I noticed that I was enjoying my 8XX headphones more than my Audeze LCD3’s. The 8XX even in its unmodified form is a damn good and enjoyable Headphone. However because it is a 300 ohm headphone it’s not a portable headphone. It is a headphone which has to be connected to a proper amplifier in order to fully enjoy the benefits. All in all I found you review to be very deceptive and quite enjoyable. It was also kind of nice to hear someone give a good review to the much-maligned and under rated 8XX.
My personal opinion: The ZMF Auteur absolutely needs to be in this comparison. I’ve tried all of these (including the Auteur) and I’d argue that out of the box, (no pad changing, EQ, or special amp/dac pairing), the Auteur and Arya are clearly the top, with the Auteur my subjective “all rounder” favorite. Arya does certain things better, but without a specific chain pairing or EQ, the Auteur ends up more accurate or enjoyable to me. 8XX is awesome WITH EQ, and generally still very enjoyable without, but needs EQ to properly compete. The clear is great and overall I’d rate it similarly to 8XX, but unless the smaller presentation style and Macrodynamics are most important to you, it just does beat the top 2. Auteur vs Clear was probably the easiest comparison choice for me.
Maybe your warm amps and dac do less sibilant the 8xx and less resolving the Arya. The fact is that alot people critic that drops headphone and love the Arya for a huge margin.
I wouldn’t exactly call the Soekris and Mjolnir warm, and I did do some testing on other devices. The Arya is certainly good, and I’d agree that more people seem to like it. All the better for those hunting for an 8xx on the used market! This whole hobby is about what You like, and generally that tends to come out in my reviews. I do try to always say why someone might make a different choice though.
Hey just curious. You were so into the HE6v2 and your passion really came across in that review. What ever happened to that headphone? Did you get tired of it and are trying new things?
That’s a tough one. I do feel like the Clear is better, but it’s not a huge margin. They are both excellent deals at they’re current used prices. For most people, I’d probably recommend the Elex, just because it’s cheaper. Then, if you decide you want a bit flatter of a frequency response, go for the Clears.
No way this has come out today :D. I hope you can give me a bit of advise. So I have the arya stealth and they're amazing but I'm looking for another headphone to compliment them. I was considering picking up the OG focal clears. Do you think the arya and clear are different enough to warrant picking both up? I'm mainly after something intimate, mid focused and a little on the warmer side. If not the clears is there anything else you'd recommend? Thanks!!!!
I had recently bought the Arya stealth and love it as they are probably the best all-rounder there is. The clears are different enough from the Arya to get different perspectives. The clear has an intimate focus on vocals, but don't think they are that warm. I only have experience with the zmf atticus when it comes to ZMFs, but knowing what zmf's house sound is, I think the Aeolus would be even warmer and still focused on vocals. I personally enjoy the Arya 8 or 9 times out of 10 than the clears for my tastes, so I personally would lean towards a ZMF for a more unique sound.
I would go with clear, good compliment headphones to Arya, specially for the price now days. First you would have completely different driver Technologies, and totally different characteristics. The punch and slam on clears is something special. If you put focals on tubes (something like Feliks audio echo) it will make them "warmer" or another words it will take the dryness out. Hope this helps. Cheers
I’m curious if our Arya Stealths have a notable variance in tonality. For me, the top end consistently had a lot of information and sparkle and some bite, and with the wrong dac/amp pairing, it got harsh. Yes, it’s mid dip and thick, yet flat lows-low mids bring some softness or darkness, but I found that the 8XX is an even “worse” culprit of softness (lacking bite), aside from it’s ~6khz peak. The 8XX upper mid dip is surprisingly big, but has an interesting way of not sounding “bad”, just dull (again, aside from that 6khz peak).
I get what you mean with the 8xx sounding a little dull with it's stock tuning and stickers, but still find that the top end bites more than the arya stealths. I also didn't think the arya stealths didn't change in sound that much from different source gear. I found the arya stealths to be pretty smooth yet still detailed across the frequency response. I love them.
They’re probably close to the same width, but I think the he1000 also gets more intimate, so for me it was a fuller idea experience. Bass is probably a wash.
@@MrAyrit makes sense. Classic rock would probably be best on the 8XX. However I used to own the original senn 800 and I felt the bass was almost non existent, I felt classic rock songs on it were way too thin. But I probably didn’t have enough amplification to get the most out of them. Right now I’m really enjoying my Arya stealths, though 😁
@@skylordsrebornpvpreplays5795 The immediate hit of resolution and wow to them over the others also feels more expensive/robust when holding it and doesn’t need any burn in which is a big plus
